Events

Term 4, 2018

Gifted WA Children’s Entrepreneur Workshop

Gifted WA is thrilled to announce our first Business Workshop for Young People!

Raquel Medrano is a Perth based Business Coach and parent to 4 Gifted children; she has been involved in the fascinating world of Gifted Education for a bit over 10 years and started her first own business when she was 10. That means she knows exactly what it takes to turn an idea into a business no matter your age!

This is a ‘Gifted WA Members Only’ event and it’ll be capped at 20 participants, so if you know anyone who may fit the criteria get them in touch with this fabulous organisation that’s doing such great work supporting gifted children including 2E and those at educational risk.

Gifted WA AGM

and

Differentiation for Gifted Students

DATE: Monday 19th November 2018

VENUE: University of Western Australia 35 Stirling HighwayNedlands6009

Differentiation for Gifted Students 6pm – 7pm

This one hour presentation will provide an overview of differentiation and some practical and effective ways that teachers can differentiate content, process, product and the learning environment to cater for the specific learning needs of gifted students in the classroom.

AITSL Standard 1.5: Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of all students across the full range of abilities.

Dr Gemma Scarparolo is a lecturer in Differentiation and HASS curriculum (Primary) at The University of Western Australia in the Graduate School of Education (Master of Teaching: Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary). She is passionate about gifted education and raising understanding about the specific needs of gifted students. She enjoys working with pre-service teachers and teachers to provide practical and effective ways to cater for the academic, social and emotional needs of gifted students in the classroom.

Gifted WA AGM 7- 8 PM

Gifted WA’s AGM is an opportunity for members to hear the report on Gifted WA’s activities and finances for the previous year, to allow time for members to ask questions about the purpose and focus of Gifted WA and to elect members for the committee for the coming year. It will also be an opportunity to network and offer feedback to board members.

Identification: 6pm-7pm Cavelle Monck, Principal of Mount Lawley Primary School, will be presenting on the importance of identification of gifted students and offering guidance on how to make this happen in a school setting to help meet their educational needs.

Collaboration, Communities and Gifted Children: Is all that talk really necessary?
7pm-8pm Melinda Gindy is the Vice President of Australian Association for the Education of the Gifted and Talented (AAEGT) and President of Gifted Families Support Group Incorporated (GFSG Inc) in NSW. Advocacy. The associated context often comes with a range of preconceived notions, many of which are strong and negative.

The Macquarie Dictionary defines advocacy as ‘to plead in favour of; support or urge by argument…’. The very definition of the word can manifest into the wrestling of the stakeholders in the lives of gifted children. Should such stake-holders become locked into a parent versus teacher or a teacher versus parent relationship, the effectiveness in working collaboratively gives way to a preventative boundary; depriving the gifted child of the best possible outcome for their education.

Research indicates that effective, responsive, well-planned home/school partnerships and communication produces numerous positive results for all involved. By developing an understanding and appreciation for the roles, expertise and experience that parents, teachers, students and the wider community can collectively contribute to a gifted child’s education, a constructive approach breaks down the boundaries of advocacy and produces constructive collaboration.

Would you like to promote your school, company or organisation by participating in Gifted Awareness Week-Australia 2018? Gifted Awareness Week Australia was founded by the Australian Association for the Education of the Gifted and Talented (AAEGT) to raise awareness of the identification, support and learning needs of gifted children and to celebrate the dedication of individuals and educational bodies who are making a difference in the lives of gifted children and their families. Gifted Awareness Week (GAW) 2018 will be held from the 18th to 24th of March and is centred on the national theme Acceptance: Diversity & Equity. Gifted WA and the AAEGT would like to help you promote your event, it could be an information session for your community, a morning tea, tour, performance, competition, information session, activity run by students or to showcase students, or another creative idea you may have! It could be long, short, big or small and we’d love you to get involved. Please contact us at info@giftedwa.org.au if you would like to discuss an idea, or send us your event flyer. Events and activities must be held during Gifted Awareness Week please. We would love to showcase to the whole of Australia what WA is doing for our gifted young people!

Please see below for forthcoming events in relation to Gifted Awareness Week. Please note, that unless explicitly stated, events are not endorsed by Gifted WA.

Our meet and greet events, designed for parents of twice exceptional children and their families, are a great opportunity to network with other parents and for 2E children to meet others like them. Come along and have some fun 🙂 Thank you to our member Joanne Richardson for hosting this wonderful event.
Meet our Perth members and let your kids enjoy exploring this Nature Play Area. We will meet on the grassed area near the Flying Fox. Looking forward to saying ‘hi’ and giving our kids the opportunity to make some new friends as well.

Monday 19 March

Gifted WA Event

Presentation: Helpful Hints for Parents of Gifted Students

Date: Monday 19th March 2018

Time: 6:45 – 8:00pm

Venue: Comet Bay College

2 Allatoona Avenue

Secret Harbour

The first part of this presentation is a parent’s reflection of her child who graduated in 2017 as dux of her secondary school and covers the difficulties encountered and how these were managed and overcome for a successful outcome.

Identifying strategies to help gifted students thrive in and out of the classroom by Alchemy Therapy’s, Dr Kate Burton, will follow.

Finally, the Dean of Academic Excellence will highlight practical tactics Comet Bay College implements for their gifted students.

This course is appropriate for primary and secondary teachers, coordinators and school leaders who want a comprehensive understanding of gifted and talented education. This course includes all aspects of the entry-level Gifted and Talented Professional Learning Modules (developed by GERRIC with DEEWR) as well as up-to-date research, strategies and time for practical planning.

Scitech GT is a three-year program (years 7-9) for gifted and talented students organised by Scitech and supported by the Department of Education and Woodside. Scitech GT aims to bring together talented students from across Perth to socialise and investigate various science, technology, engineering and maths topics with like-minded peers. Students are invited to four events per year that include an inspiring guest presenter and hands on group challenges.

Program intake is available to 120 PEAC year 6 students in 2018 through PEAC coordinators. If you are in year 7-9 and would like to apply for the Scitech GT program waitlist, and the chance to attend a Scitech GT event on Tuesday 20 March please apply through the link below:

Are you running events during Gifted Awareness Week 2018 that you would like to brag about afterwards? We would love to share what WA schools and organisations are doing to raise awareness! Please use the hashtags #GiftedWA and #GAW2018 on any social media posts during the week so can all see the great things that are happening around Perth and Western Australia.

Previous Events

Term 4, 2017

This event was held at Scitech on October 16th, 2017. We held a Q&A Panel focusing on research presented at the 22nd Biennial World Conference – Global Perspectives in Gifted Education. Tickets were free for members and $20 for non-members. Gifted kids will be better catered for, and happier, if educators and parents teach growth mindset, critical & creative thinking, resilience, persistence and then ‘get out of the way’. This was the key message from the recent world conference about Global Perspectives in Gifted Education. Worldwide, Australia is doing ok in educating and supporting our gifted, but we should improve the link between universities and schools. Thanks to panel members who shared their conference highlights, Scitech for hosting us, and to the parents and educators who joined in the friendly, informal discussion.”

Term 2, 2017

Identifying gifted students is often not as easy a task as we may assume! Not all gifted students are high achievers: some deliberately mask their abilities, while others, especially the twice-exceptional (or gifted and learning disabled), may fly under the radar in the regular classroom. When students have difficult or chaotic home lives, the challenge of identifying gifted young people becomes even more complicated!

Teachers and parents spent an evening listening to the research of Dr. Eileen Slater and Dr. Steven Martin, both of whom have a passionate interest in alternative methods of identifying gifted children. Eileen is particularly interested in identifying students from lower socio-economic backgrounds, while Steven has a passion for incorporating philosophy when identifying and working with gifted children and young people.

The event was held at Comet Bay College and hosted by Dr. Peter Merrotsy.

Term 1, 2017

With anxiety affecting many gifted people, it’s no wonder that tonight’s Gifted WA event on ‘perfectionism and anxiety in gifted children’ at Edith Cowan University was sold out.

Almost 80 people listened to Alchemy Therapy psychotherapist, Dr. Kate Burton, explain that perfectionism and anxiety caused behaviours like refusing to engage, fight or flight, constant checking and physical harm among others. If not dealt with, it could lead to really serious problems in adulthood.

Tonight, Kate made clear that acceleration was under-utilised and research consistently showed it was necessary to extend gifted children early and consistently. Enrichment, such as pull out programs was just not enough.

It was a supportive environment as teachers, parents and professionals scribbled notes throughout Kate’s presentation and afterward mingled, and opened up lines of communication.

And while the parents learned about perfectionism, Just Improvise and Glen Hall kept almost 40 children mentally and physically stimulated with activities encouraging children to be themselves, be flexible and to be imperfect.